Laughter and  Merriment
by Maidenstear
Summary: Because sometimes, saving the world gets to be too much.


Aneko: Oooo, look at me! Posting two stories at once! Ambitious, aren't I? Haha. Actually, I Just spent the weekend at my grandparent's house AND since they don't have any internet, I wisely spent my time focusing on my fanfictions. Aren't I a good girl? Anyways, I really liked this one, and I hope you do too.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!

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><p><strong>Laughter and Merriment<strong>

"Grandpa! I'm home!" Yugi called. The shop bell rang as he closed the door behind him.

"Oh! Welcome back, Yugi. Did you get that new contraption you needed?"

"A duel disk? Yeah, I got one." He held up the box, a wide smile on his face.

"This is all so exciting," Solomon Muto chortled, his eyes bright. "My grandson, participating in the tournament of Seto Kaiba."

"I was in a tournament before, Grandpa," Yugi reminded him.

"Yes, I know." He smiled. "But this time, I'll be able to watch."

"Oh. Yeah, that's true." Yugi looked at the ground. _And hopefully, this time I won't have to play with anyone's soul on the line._

Yugi headed for the stairs. "I'm going to my room. I'll be down in a little while, okay?"

"Sure. I'll make you a snack when you come back. How does that sound?"

"Yeah, thanks Grandpa!"

Yugi ran up the stairs towards his room. He had always loved his grandpa, but ever since Duelist Kingdom, they had gotten closer. Maybe it was true that absence makes the heart grow fonder. And the idea that something like that could happen again was frightening.

He threw his backpack on the floor before jumping on his bed, the box still in his hands.

"Are you going to open it now, Yugi?"

Yugi looked up. Standing in front of him was the ghostly, and current resident of the Millennium Puzzle, spirit of the Pharaoh. He was looking down at the box holding the duel disk, his arms crossed.

"Yugi smiled. "You're excited too, huh?" He looked at the box as well. "I would've opened it when we first got them, but Joey had already opened his, so I figured I could wait."

He cut the tape on the side and opened the box, sliding out the contraption inside.

"Whoa…" Yugi turned the disk over in his hands. Up close, it was a very detailed invention. "It's lighter than I thought it would be. Kaiba must have worked hard on this."

"Dueling will be much easier this way," Yami said, looking at the duel disk for himself.

Yugi stood up. "I should take this box and throw it away downstairs. I did tell Grandpa that I'd be down soon, anyways."

"Wait, Yugi." Yugi paused on his way to the door. The Pharaoh pointed at the floor. "Something else fell out of the box."

"Huh?" Yugi walked back over. Yami was just a spirit, and since he wasn't using Yugi's body right now, he couldn't pick it up. Yugi grabbed the small booklet and read the cover. "It's an instruction manual."

"I guess it's a bit more complicated than it looks."

Yugi flipped through a few pages. "I think most of it is just setting it up."

"…Didn't Joey throw away the box as soon as he took the duel disk out?" The Pharaoh asked. "I wonder if he saw the instruction book."

"Uh-oh…" The two looked at each other worriedly before laughing. "Knowing Joey, he probably didn't. Geez, that's just like him."

"Perhaps he figured out how to work it by himself."

"If he didn't, we can tell him when we see him tomorrow."

"As long as we see him before the dueling starts. I'm sure the battle will start quickly," Yami mused, staring out the window.

"Huh? No way!"

Yugi's startled voice woke him from his thoughts. "Hmm? What is it?"

Yugi held up the book. "Look at this. Kaiba made a bunch of new rules for this tournament."

Yami read a few to himself. "These might actually make duels more fair. Or at least longer. If summoning a higher level of monster is dependent on sacrifices, it gives the other player a chance to fight back before they can get the chance to summon anything too powerful."

"Making the duel more challenging for both players," Yugi finished. "That makes sense. Kaiba really thought this through."

"Well, he does take Duel Monsters very seriously."

"That's true."

"Plus, if what Ishizu said is true, we're going to have o be very careful. It looks like we're going to be fighting against someone else with a Millennium Item."

Yugi sighed. "Great. More Shadow Games?"

The Pharaoh nodded. "This could be our toughest fight yet."

Yugi fell completely silent, and the ancient spirit looked at him curiously. "Is something wrong?"

Yugi groaned. "Argh!" He cried, startling Yami as he fell backwards onto his bed.

"Yugi…? Are you alright…?"

Yugi was frowning up at his ceiling. "Why does it _always_ have to be like this?

Yami blinked, confusion settling over his sharp features. "Like what?"

"We're always saving the world, or rescuing someone, you know? No matter where we go, something bad always seems to follow. It's just…" he gestured into the air. "…It's just not _fair_!"

Yami was surprised. He had never heard Yugi talk like this before. "Yugi…I didn't know you felt this way." He sat on the edge of the bed. "Forgive me. You didn't know that this would all happen to you once you completed the Millennium Puzzle. I'm afraid that I've made my burden yours as well."

Yugi rolled onto his side so that he could see the Pharaoh better. His dark companion's brow was creased in worried thought. "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to complain. It's not that I don't like saving the world—I'm happy that I can help you make a difference. It's just that before—you know, before Duelist Kingdom and before we met Kaiba—Duel Monsters was just, well, a _card game_. It was fun. Do you remember? Between class, Tea, Joey and I would just sit and play. And we didn't play to win or to save anyone, we just played because we _enjoyed_it." Yugi put his arms behind his head, looking at the ceiling again.

"I see."

"I miss doing that. And you _know _Kaiba's not holding this tournament for the fun of it. It's kind of…" He paused for a moment. "…Sad."

_That's right…_ The Pharaoh realized. For Yugi, it had never been about _winning_until Kaiba and then Pegasus has put his Grandpa in danger. Before that, he had just found happiness in playing against a friend. He had had no ulterior motive or other reason for playing other than it made him happy.

Even when something important was on the line, he couldn't win if it meant sacrificing something else, like when Kaiba nearly threw himself off a wall because he was about to lose.

Yugi really had no darkness in his heart. He wasn't cut out for this kind of thing. It was eating away at his mind and his spirit.

"Say, Yugi."

"Hmm?"

"You and I could play a game, if you want. Just for fun."

Yugi sat up quickly, his eyes bright. "Really?"

Yami nodded, smiling at the teenager's expression. "Sure. I don't know many of the games you play these days, but we can play whatever you want."

"Awesome!" Yugi jumped off his bed and ran to his closet, where there was a precarious mountain of board games and other toys. He pulled out a few and brought them over. "Which one should we start with?"

The Pharaoh laughed at his eagerness. "Well, since I don't know anything about them, why don't you choose?"

"Okay, then…Oh! This is one of my favorites!" Yugi showed him the box.

"Wow, it's…colorful," his companion noted.

Yugi laughed. "Yup. First we pick our playing pieces. What color do you want to be?"

"Um…yellow."

"Okay, then I'll be blue. We put the pieces here, and now we both roll the die to see who goes first."

Yugi rolled a three, and then he let the Pharaoh take over for a moment to roll the die. He got a six.

"Okay! You go first"

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><p>"I'm going to win!" Yami declared triumphantly.<p>

"_Oh _no you're not!" Yugi rolled the die and grinned. "Ha! A six! Only three more spaces to go and I win!"

'Oh yeah?" Yami rolled. "Too late. I just won." He moved his piece the last few spaces.

"So close," Yugi groaned. "Let's play again!"

'You're on."

"Next, we'll play this one…"

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><p>"That was a long one." Yami stretched his arms over his head.<p>

"But it was still fun, right?" Yugi asked.

"Yes, it was very fun."

"What was the score again?" Yugi wondered aloud, stifling a yawn.

The Pharaoh shrugged. "I don't even remember any more. We've played so many games that I've lost track."

Yugi looked up at his clock. "Whoa, is it really that late already?

"Maybe we should start looking at Kaiba's new rules now," Yami said. "Just so that we're ready for tomorrow."

"Aw, come on, just one more game?" Yugi pleaded.

"Okay," Yami conceded. "They were having so much fun. There was no harm in letting it last a little longer.

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><p>Solomon Muto climbed the stairs to his grandson's room slowly. It had been a few hours since Yugi had gone upstairs. It was already dark outside. He had made a snack for the boy just like he said he would, but when Yugi hadn't appeared, he figured he had probably gotten distracted by something. Now it was dinnertime, and he still hadn't shown up, so it was probably a good idea to check on him.<p>

"Yugi? Are you in there?" He knocked softly on the door before opening it. The sight inside made him chuckle. Yugi was lying on the floor, one arm tucked under his head as he slept. In his other hand, he still had a game token. The rest of his floor was covered in different gaming boards and their boxes. The old man shook his head. Yugi had always been like this since he was little. If he spent a few hours doing nothing but play games, he would tire himself out and fall asleep after a while, no matter what time of day it was.

Solomon took a blanket off the bed and covered him with it. He probably wouldn't wake up until the morning, and he could clean up then.

"Good night, Yugi," he murmured, switching off the light before exiting the room.

Yami watched him leave from his position on the floor beside Yugi, who slumbered on, completely unaware. He had fallen asleep in the middle of their last game, just after he rolled on his turn.

They had never gotten around to looking at the rules. Yugi had kept on saying, "Just _one_more game." And he had given in each time. After all, he enjoyed games just as much as Yugi did.

Yami smiled as Yugi's fist tightened around his game piece.

Oh well. They could look at the rules tomorrow morning. And maybe they could play just _one_ more game…

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><p>Aneko: Funnily enough, this whole fiction started with the one line from the summary. Isn't that odd? And it continued when I wondered how Joey could have missed the new rules entirely before battling Espa Roba (Besides the obvious reason of needing a way to explain it to the audience). Poor Joey. You were a guinea pig.<p>

While I was writing this, I had the cutest picture in my head of that moment right after Solomon leaves and Yugi's just kinda passed out on the floor next to Yami and a whole bunch of games. If I were a better artist, I would make a piece of fanart for it. Boo hoo. I'm not. A girl can dream though, right? Maybe I should go to one of my artistic friends and ask them to draw it for me…


End file.
